


fully bloomed.

by aurantium



Category: HANAMI Company
Genre: First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, flexing on participating in fandoms by writing oc fic, support hanami, tattoo artist/flower shop au but its canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 05:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18088565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurantium/pseuds/aurantium
Summary: In which Ren Shiratori's ordinary Monday morning is shaken up by a certain customer.





	fully bloomed.

**Author's Note:**

> fic theme songs: sans toi a by sarah natasha warne (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAddbOSXE88), les filles d'aujourd'hui by joyce johnathan and vianney (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT1xFYYTobA)

Soft music fills the air of the quiet flower shop, as Ren idly repositions a display by half an inch or so. It was an ordinary late Monday morning, after all. Having customers was awfully rare, and even when they did, it was often scheduled, like weddings or parties… Well, naturally. No one would go out of their way to visit a flower shop at 11am. All Ren really has to do is beautifying, and quite frankly, he enjoys the quieter hours of the day. He would leave charming the customers to anyone else.

 

Humming along to the soft piano and the sweet French words coming from his Spotify Daily Mix, Ren finds a skip in his step as he mists another display. Today's going to be a good day, he decides, smiling to himself. So much of a good day, that he only notices a customer when he nearly walks into him. Of course. That's why the bells in the song seemed so out of place, because they weren't part of the song at all. “Oh! I'm sorry…”  _ Ah. _ Ren trails off as he realizes that he has to crane his neck to make proper eye contact with him. He's  _ tall _ , and even if Ren is too professional to admit he thinks so, kind of really hot. “Are you looking for something today, sir?”

 

For whatever reason, he seems equally speechless as Ren. Thank heavens, it makes the silence less awkward on his end. “Oh! Uh, no, not really.” He reaches into his bag, rummaging around for a moment before producing a sketchbook and a pen. An art student? “I'm, uh, a tattoo artist, and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind me sketching your flowers to practice?” Close enough. The tattoos that he could see were lovely, now that he really looked at them. Far different from the usual black and white fare, they almost looked like paintings.

 

“Well…” He isn't quite sure what the protocol for ‘there’s a really hot artist in the shop and he wants to draw in here’ is. There's probably no such thing in the first place. Ren looks around the shop again, unsure. It wasn't going to be busy today, right? It wouldn't hurt, and it's not like artists are particularly noisy or obstructive… There's no one else working for a bit either, so… “That's fine with me, as long as you don't mind listening to French music and watching me work.” It was a stupid anxiety joke, one of those that he immediately regrets, but tries his best to save with a smile.

 

Mr. Tattoos and Piercings doesn't seem to pick up on the bad joke, and he offers a smile that Ren could probably fall in love with. Wait— Oh my god, what was he  _ thinking _ ? Whatever. He nearly shakes his head to clear the thought out, before the artist speaking snaps him right out of his gay panic. “Thanks. I'm Juto, by the way.” A free hand, bigger than his own, reaches out for a handshake. The tattoos even reach down to his wrist, Ren notes, and they're just as beautiful as all of the other visible ones. 

 

“How lovely,” he murmurs thoughtlessly, and immediately prays to any listening deity that Juto didn't hear him. It's enough to nearly make him slap his own hand over his mouth, but his body retains enough composure to stay professional and  _ not _ do that. Reaching out, he gives him a firm handshake, trying to force his mind off of the thoughts racing in his head. “You can call me Ren.”

 

“That's a nice name.”

 

Ren feels his heart skip.

 

* * *

 

The next few hours go on without incident, thankfully. He was right when he thought that customers would be sparse— few people came and went, buying premade bouquets for their spouses or partners or whatever else. It was more than he expected, honestly. It wasn't rare to only have one or two people come in on quiet days like these. Once or twice, he sees the customers eyeing the tall artist, but Ren quickly diverts their attention elsewhere, to avoid interrupting his work. 

 

… Speaking of him, though. They didn't really talk after that, other than pleasantries like “Would you like a cup of tea?” or “Do you want somewhere to sit?”, and that was about it. Normally, he would find it awkward to be in an empty shop with someone he barely knew, but it felt strangely  _ fine _ when it was Juto. Not good, not bad, it was just… Nice to have company that wasn't the saccharine tones of French singers or the husky voices of folk musicians. He just kind of hopes he didn't notice Ren slipping up and singing along to the radio.

 

Metal scrapes on the floor as Juto stands, pulling Ren's attention away from the baby's breath and lavender bouquet he had been fixing up. “I think I've practiced enough today, so I'll be getting out of your hair, Ren.” He saves him the trouble of moving his seat back to where it was, behind the register. Surprisingly, he doesn't leave immediately, instead choosing to peer at the selection of smaller bouquets. Ren nearly pipes up to say ‘It’s fine, you don't need to buy anything,’ but Juto beats him to the punch, picking up a dozen tulips. “Would you mind ringing me up for these?”

 

Well, he can't argue with another sale, so he nods and does just that. Juto passes him a bill, along with a piece of folded up paper, saying to keep the change. Before Ren can even ask about the paper, much less return it to him, the artist is out the door, multicolored tulips held tight to his chest as he nearly sprints off. _Must have been late to something_ , Ren thinks to himself, processing the sale and tucking the tip into his pocket. Then, all that was left on the counter was the paper. 

 

Perching himself on the same stool, he carefully unfolds it, unsure of what to expect.

 

Oh.

 

Well, whatever he would have expected, it certainly wasn't this. What greets Ren is a sketch of himself, tending to roses. Apparently, Juto's talents didn't stop at elegant painting-like tattoos. The portrait is kind of flattering, to be honest, much prettier than he would have ever considered himself to be. At the bottom of the page, something's been quickly scrawled down, ink slightly smudged. Juto really was in a rush, wasn't he? It's almost endearing.  


 

_ I came in mostly to practice sketching flowers. I hope you like this fully bloomed bouquet I drew. — Juto _

 

He nearly bursts into flames at the second sentence. Fully bloomed bouquet… That was new. Awfully romantic, too.

 

Ren tucks the paper into his other pocket, and though his ordinary Monday morning became a little less ordinary, the skip in his step remains.

**Author's Note:**

> hi! sorry if you expected an update to quartz and serenity. (maybe another time...) instead, have my newest obsession. please support hanami company, it's an a3-inspired oc project i help mod! http://hanamicompany.carrd.co/
> 
> i wrote this at 4am pardon any mistakes


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